Submitted to the Prevent Strategy consultation 30 January 2015.

Dear Sirs,

I wish to make a simple and fundamental point for you to consider in your consultation..

My point is that it is simply astonishing that your definition of "British Values" in the Prvent Strategy makes no mention at all of Christianity. It is absolutely undeniable that Great Britain has been founded on Christian values derived from the Bible. You have only to think of the Coronation, at which Her Majesty is handed a Bible as "The Most Precious Gift that this Earth Affords" to see the truth of what I'm saying. You simply cannot whitewash our history to obliterate our Christian and Biblical core---it would be a heinous crime to do so. And yet there is a very real prospect that the legislation you propose to introduce will have exactly this effect in suppressing Biblical truth and oppressing all who strive to uphold it. Can this really be your intention?

Of course, I understand and even applaud your efforts to deal with the very serious threat that Islam represents to our nation, since its tenets and the teachings of its prophet are directly incompatible with and inherently hostile to our democratic way of life, but your proposals are far too "catch-all" in their nature. As they stand, they will undoubtedly become a weapon with which the liberal "politically correct" activists will enforce the suppression of freedom of speech and even conscience, of Bible-believing Christians. This is by no means far-fetched, and is already a frighteningly real trend that can be seen in the number of prosecutions and sackings of good Christian people, who have simply expressed traditional Christian beliefs. A good example, of which I expect you are aware, is the recent case of the highly respected Justice of the Peace, Richard Page, who was told by the Lord Chancellor and Lord Chief Justice that he was "guilty of being discriminatory" by stating that a child's best interests lie in being raised by a mother and father. He was simply stating an indisputable fact, that has been amply proven by several objective scientific studies (See footnote), and it is intolerable that anyone should be punished for stating it. That is the tyranny of Orwell's 1984 or Alice in Wonderland and it should have no place in our Christian British society.

It is my earnest hope and prayer that there is a sufficient remnant of Christian core belief within the Prevent committee to recognize and legislate for special protection of Biblical Christian values. Really you should see it as your duty before God to re-define your "British Values" to include at least a reference to traditional Christian beliefs, which have formed the backbone of our nation's laws. In fact it is outrageous that "British Values" have so far made no mention of Christianity, whereas, when Kevin Rudd was first Prime Minister of Australia, he famously declared to all would-be migrants and especially Muslims: "We are a Christian country, we practice Christian traditions and we uphold Christian values—if you are not willing to do the same, then you have no place in our nation". I believe that earned him a lot of support not only in Australia, but in Western society generally.—It is utterly disgraceful that self-professed 'christian' Mr Cameron, who says we should be "More evangelical about our Christian faith" is too pusillanimous to make a similar stand. Can you not understand why so many Christian people are disillusioned with this government and are flocking in droves to UKIP, who are the only party who have meaningfully promised to uphold "real Christian British Values"?

Yours,

Tim P. Cripps,

Footnote:

Studies prove children of heterosexual couples have best outcomes; Quote:

But there is evidence that Justice of the Peace, Richard Page is correct. Simon Fraser University economics professor Douglas Allen, for example, studied thousands of homosexual and heterosexual couples drawn at random from Canadian census data to find that a third fewer of the children from same-sex households graduated from high school than those from natural families.

What's more, when Allen and associates examined the raw data from studies drawing the contrary conclusion, they found it had been wrongly interpreted, and actually supported their own result. However, Allen acknowledges that many more studies claim to have found no difference in outcomes. But all of these, he argues, are intentionally skewed to get the desired, pro-gay result. University of Texas sociologist Mark Regnerus conducted a 2012 study with a smaller sample and concluded adult children of same-sex couples experienced more relational and emotional problems than children of heterosexual couples.